In Sydney, Australia, Matt Simons, also known as Matthew Douglas Simons, is a con man who has been convicted of fraud.
He stole millions of dollars from other parents of children attending Kambala private schools. However, he was held accountable for a minor fraction of the total sum that had been stolen.
The judge ruled that he committed fraud in order to obtain $230,000 from Warwick Miller and found him guilty. Miller was serving as President and CEO of Guess Inc. at the time.
As a direct consequence of his actions, Matt Simons was sentenced to 18 months of weekend imprisonment.
That’s not the end of it.
The con artist has begun taking advantage of an even larger number of people by employing a fresh dishonest scheme. He gets his victims to pay for his upscale beachfront villa in Byron Bay, which costs $1,800 per week to rent. In addition to that, he owns the Mercedes Benz that is parked on the property.
In 2004, Matthew Douglas Simons was forced to declare bankruptcy due to financial difficulties. During that period, he was in debt to his creditors to the tune of $5 million.
But that didn’t stop him from living a lavish lifestyle to the fullest extent possible. He owned a boat, a property in Vaucluse, and a Jaguar automobile all at the same time.
The education of his three daughters was entrusted to the illustrious private institution of Kambala.
However, the other parents whose children attended Kambala were the ones who provided financial support for Matt’s lavish lifestyle. Rod Minell, Mark Mikolaitis, Mr. Miller, and Pierce Cody were among those who participated in this activity.
Only one person was successful in extracting their money from the grasp of “Matt Simons,” also known as “Matthew Douglas Simons.” When Rodney Adler was the director of HIH, he was found guilty of an “appalling lack of commercial morality” and sentenced to prison for his actions.
Matt had successfully conned those individuals out of their money by using a series of misleading assertions. He explained to them that he would be purchasing commercial real estate with the money.
By 2007, the court had exonerated the career con artist of the charge that he had bilked Mr. Cody out of $668,000. On the other hand, the charge that sent him to jail was for defrauding Mr. Miller.
Matt Simons (Matthew Douglas Simons) Threatened Most of His Victims
A significant number of his other victims made attempts to retrieve their lost money.
However, they were unable to obtain their monies. They were, nevertheless, subjected to threats.
A “cease and desist” letter was sent to one of Matt’s victims, Eddy Joseph, by the attorney representing Matt. It is important to remember that Matt owed Eddy the sum of $150,000. However, the letter warned him that if he continued to approach Matt for the money, Matt would press charges against him for criminal solicitation.
This included accusations of blackmailing him and harassing him through the use of a telecommunications network.
Threats were made to other victims by Matthew Douglas Simons, also known as Matt Simons, and Eddy wasn’t the only one.
Another victim was warned that they could face charges of “demanding money with menaces” if they reported Matt Simons. In a similar manner, he stated to another individual that he wouldn’t think twice about initiating legal action against them if they caused Matt or his company any kind of financial harm.
One of the victims expressed to the media that he wanted the perpetrator to be held accountable. In 2014, the victim was in a desperate situation. His wife was in the final stages of a life-threatening illness, and he was struggling to make ends meet with his business.
He was in desperate need of some money at the time. Matt extended him a loan from a non-banking institution and demanded $15,000 in legal expenses in return. He did not, however, present the loan at any point.
In other words, the victim was never paid back any of the money that was borrowed. After paying the legal bills, Matt vanished from the scene.
According to what the victim shared with the media, “Matt knew everything about my predicament. He was aware of my wife and the condition she was in. In point of fact, he appeared to be extremely empathetic as well.
Additionally, he claimed to members of the press that Matt Simons, also known as Matthew Douglas Simons, was only interested in stealing money from him.
Since that time, the victim’s wife passed away, and he was unable to save his company. Recently, he experienced a mental collapse.
“Matt Took Advantage of People Suffering from Terminal Illnesses, Charging Them Thousands of Dollars In the Guise of Loan Processing Fee or “Legal Fee” for Loans He Never Produced”
There was a second victim who came forward. She brought up the fact that her husband was battling cancer and that they had a significant amount of financial obligations as a pair. When they came across Matt Simons, they were seeking for alternative means of obtaining money outside banks.
He gave them the assurance that he could obtain financing for them from Hong Kong. On the other hand, he requested $4,000 for the due diligence and $5,000 for the legal fees.
In addition to that, he requested several thousand extra dollars.
In order to make the payment, the victim and her husband took out a loan from their mutual acquaintances for $14,500. After sending Matt the monies, they wished for his assistance in obtaining the loan and hoped he would do so.
There was no evidence of the loan or any documentation after several weeks had elapsed.
After that, he requested $80,000 from them, and then five days later, he requested an extra $20,000 from them. The victim was enraged by this, and she addressed the offender by telling him, “We came to you because we had no money.”
In response, Simons suggested to the victim that she obtains this cash from her close relatives and acquaintances.
After that, the victim made numerous attempts to receive a refund from the perpetrator. To this day, he has only given her back $2,000 of what he owes her.
Joseph is another victim who came to Matt for help after he was threatened by Westpac with having his business placed in receivership.
Matt disclosed to Joseph that he had received $600,000 from an investor from China. However, in order to use this money, he needs $27,000 to cover the costs of legal representation and consulting services.
In addition to this, he employed a method of deceit that he had previously used on a number of different Kambala parents. He informed Joseph that a significant business transaction was taking place at Port Macquarie and that he stood to make a sizeable profit if he provided funding to Simons.
In addition to that, he disclosed to Joseph that the transaction will be finalized in the near future.
They agreed to everything in writing, but Matt didn’t put up any money. In total, Joseph had provided him with 150 000 dollars.
Later on, when Matt tried to get his money back, he threatened to press charges of extortion and harassment on Joseph. Joseph was the victim of these threats.
How Matthew Douglas Simons aka Matt Simons Started Another Scam in 2015
In 2015, Matt Simons asserted that he was the Principal at Private Equity Business. He made this claim repeatedly throughout the year. On the other hand, he didn’t establish the business until 2017 and funded it by borrowing $150,000 from the mother of his business partner.
Only for three short days, his business colleague Brett Richardson served in the role of director of the Private Equity Business.
He lied to the media and said that Matt was seeking for someone who had an AFS license despite the fact that he was not eligible for such a license himself.
When Brett learned that Matt had been convicted of fraud in the past, he was taken aback by the fact that Matt was ineligible for an AFS license.
On the other hand, it was already too late.
By that time, Brett’s mother had given Matthew Douglas Simons a loan of $125,000 for a period of six months.
When Matt was unable to make the monthly interest payment of $700 on schedule, she sent him a letter explaining that she needed the money for her retirement fund and asked that he send it to her. Additionally, Brett’s mother relied on that cash to cover the day-to-day costs that she incurred.
Matt gave her his word that he would make the payment, and he will have the loan paid off in its whole by the beginning of February 2018.
Despite this, she was never reimbursed by him.
In the end, she was required to appear in court. There, Simons engaged the services of a highly skilled attorney, and Brett’s mother was ultimately unsuccessful in the lawsuit. She was required to compensate him for the additional $3,500 in legal fees.
Matthew Douglas Simons, also known as Matt Simons, was described as a vile individual by Matt’s former assistant, who spoke with the media about him. Every single word that he says is a fabrication.
In 2017, she did some work for him over the course of a few months. According to the former assistant, dealing with all of the people to whom Simons owed money was an incredibly difficult experience.
In the end, she was another one of Matt Simons’s victims. He had not paid her at all, and she was now owed a total of $10,000. The former helper is currently raising her children by herself.
Matt Uses Legal Loopholes to Avoid Paying His Victims
The police were contacted by a number of victims of Matt Simons. On the other hand, they explained that it was a civil disagreement.
The majority of these victims are financially unable to pursue legal action against a repeat con artist because the costs involved are simply too high. To this point, only one of the victims has been successful in doing so.
Kel Attkins makes his living by spreading lies about wastewater. He had handed over approximately $6000 to Matt as payment for the business proposal.
Matt provided him with a business plan that was completely unrelated to Kel’s company after a period of time that spanned a few months. There was nothing special or distinctive about it at all.
Certainly, he desired to have his money returned to him. But all Kel had was a phone number and a post office box number for Matt.
He waited for Matt to answer to his email for what seemed like hours, but he was ultimately disappointed.
After that, he got Judy Babington, an experienced debt collector, on the job. She prevailed in her efforts to get a judgment rendered against Matt Simons.
The court took note of the fact that Matt claimed to have an executive MBA from Bond University, but the quality of his work indicated that this claim is not true. They issued a directive for him to return the amount of $5678.
Matt never complied with the court’s order to return the money, despite the fact that it was issued.
Kel has informed the media that Matt has been making repeated assertions that he has money held in trust. For weeks, he never stopped offering explanations. The debt collector, on the other hand, was required to return to court in order to get a garnishee order against Matt’s bank account.
Because of this, Kel Attkins was able to receive his money back.
Conclusion
Matthew Douglas Simons, sometimes known as Matt Simons, had a large number of victims. The fact that only one or two people have been able to get their money back from the thief is really disappointing.
You need to use the utmost caution when dealing with con artists like Matt Simons.
A con artist in the United Kingdom is engaged in an activity that is very comparable to that carried out by Matt in Australia. Boyd Parker is the moniker that he goes by. He has a well-deserved reputation for stealing money from people and providing “fake jobs” to recent college grads.
People like Matt and Boyd take advantage of your lack of discernment to get what they want from you. Therefore, use extreme caution if someone approaches you and claims they can quickly and easily present you with significant amounts of money.
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